Word Games
by cynicalspring
Summary: E is the most used letter in the English language. Too bad Raph doesn't know that. short one-shot M for violence and language


A/N Thanks to SleepingSeeker for giving me the plot bunny! Thanks to Halloween for putting me in a creepy frame of mind!

* * *

"Wrong. You know, for a second I thought you'd actually be better at this game."

Karai leaned in intimately close to Donatello's face. He could feel her warm breath ghost over his jaw line, feel her eyelashes batting against his cheek before she turned her attention to his brother.

"N-No! No please! N-No More! NONONONONONONOOOOORRRAAAAAAAAAAUGHHHHH!" Raphael choked back the rest of his scream as tears of pain streamed down his face as karai worked, and soon the smell of burning meat filled his nostrils.

"Your turn to guess, Raphael."

"I don't know… idontknowidontknow…. Please just stop… just stop" he was fighting hard to stay conscious & alert, but it was a losing battle.

"Tell you what. If you guess the next one correctly, I won't make the orange one play. I'll let him go in one piece."

His head snapped up as forced himself to focus. He narrowed his eyes "You're… you're lying."

"I'm a lot of things Raphael, but a liar is not one of them. Now guess, and if you guess correctly I'll let your brother go."

"Let Donatello take my turn…"

"Hmmm… no. This is a one-time-only deal just for you. So what do you say Raph? Going once… Going twice…."

"I'LL DO IT!" Raph barked "I'll do it. Just promise you'll let him go…"

"I promise, of course that makes for an odd number of turtles, so my dear sweet Leonardo will just have to play the winner." Karai chuckled "or what's left of him…"

Raph took in a few heavy but short breaths as he rallied his strength. He lifted his head up as far as the restraints on the stainless steel table would allow and glanced at the whiteboard at the foot of the table, but his mind was too wracked with pain to focus.

He began to panic, Mikey had a chance to go free. He had a chance to save his brother's life, and then maybe stall long enough for him to go get help. When he got free he was going to Fuck. This. Bitch. Up. Current condition, or no.

"Hurry it up Red. You know that patience isn't one of my virtues"

"You can… you can do it Raph." He swallowed hard and licked his clammy lips. "Just take your time and think logically. Maybe a vowUNGH!" Donatello's words were cut short as Karai brutally struck him across the face.

"NO CHEATING!" her shrill maniacal cry echoed off of the stark white tile walls as she composed herself. "Time is up Raphael, now guess, or I'll just kill your brothers now and be done with it."

Raph began to panic. His eyes roved over the white board as his breathing became feverishly shallow. There were so many spaces, and so few were filled in, but they weren't that far into the game, there were too many choices. Fresh tears rolled down his face and doubt was poking it's ugly face into his thoughts.

"God… I don't know, Um… maybe… no, that can't be it….I DON'T KNOW!"

"I SAID CHOOSE, MUTANT!" She pushed the blade of her knife against his throat.

"OK! OK! F! Is there an 'F'?! Please fuckin' tell me there's a damn 'F'!"

Karai pressed her lips together trying to hide her grin and slowly shook her head.

"Wrong guess. Pity. What a waste." She walked over to the tray and picked up the surgical saw, and turned to Donatello whose eyes were rolling back into his head from pain at this point. He was babbling incoherently.

"NO! NO! YOU FUCKIN' BITCH! DON'T YOU TOUCH HIM! DON'T YOU FUCKIN' TOUCH HIM!"

Donatello's screams filled the sterile room until he passed out, and then there was just the sickening wet sound of the saw making its way through flesh, tendon, and bone. It was all Raph could hear as he fought against his restraints, sheer force of will & rage succeeding when what was left of his body should have failed him hours ago.

He managed to break one of the chest restraints and tried to sit up. A jolt of blinding pain shot through his body as he pushed the freshly cauterized stump where his elbow should have been against the table. But he had to see… he just had to see…

He lifted his head in time to see Karai make one last pass with the saw as it finished biting through Donatello's femur. She unceremoniously tossed the leg from the table onto the smaller pile of their collective extremities; fingers, hands, feet & forearms. She picked up the cauterizing iron.

As she seared Donatello's femoral artery closed she looked up from her handiwork and smiled sweetly at Raphael, swirls of steam and smoke framing her face.

"Isn't Hangman fun?"


End file.
